The Legend of the Fennux (Lore)

Some time ago the Fennux were thriving all across Earth. They pranced around, ate bits of food and pawed at eachother with
utmost happiness. This sort of behavior went on for ages up until recently when humanity started abusing the Earth, turning once fertile grounds
into now inhospitable wastelands. These are the known Fennux and here are their stories:

Western Region
They know it as the "Day the World Shook", but this event did not capture the notice of the world, a mere tremble of needles in seismology
labs nearby. The desert, a peaceful warm place until the bright sunlight became too much for even the most hardy of these curious creatures; who
sought refuge in rickety mines that had long been abandoned by human touch. This was a sanctuary until the fateful day that plates shifted beneath the earth's
surface and the mines caved in; trapping thousands of these marvelous creatures from their beloved sunshine outside.

At first, they whimpered in fear, scrambling past each other's bodies in the dust filled, arid cavern, seeking refuge in another's warm fur or the shape of
another nearby. A sliver of light cut the darkness from high above, out of reach. It was then they begin to cry. One by one, they cried out, their cries
lending the smaller creatures strength to join in and together; they howled at the world outside, begging for the sunshine to reappear. With their heads bowed
up, they cried through the night and the day, crying at the sunlight and the moonlight alike, crying for their freedom.

These passionate, life-infused cries caught the attention of a single conversationist who could hear the heart wrenching sounds of the trapped creatures over
the putter of her truck, as she drove through the bone dry desert. With a flashlight in hand, she stumbled through the early morning hours until the cries were
so deafening, she knew they had to be in the earthen rubble below. She called the only team she knew, the only ones she could trust to truly save them: Team Fennux.
Mere hours after the arrival of said team, the furry creatures were excavated, transported from one world to another: an artificial world created only for them,
to house them safely until a new environment was found. In the meantime, Team Fennux worked night and day to seal the mines so that no creatures, big or small, would
ever be trapped in them again.

Saharan Region
The Fennux sniffed at the bars of his cage, seated on the hay strewn floor, his eyes sad and his heart broken as he watched the other cages being stacked
upon one another by enormous humans. They were treated as if they were no more than blocks to be organized and arranged. Caught and affixed with a collar, these Fennux could
see the sunshine through the grate of their cages, yet none of them would be able to eternal merge and escape such cruel human behavior. It was not the cages that preventeed
their birth-right ability of fusion, no, it was the collars. These insensitive humans, realizing that a Fennux could not be caged willingly, secured collars that prevented them from
eternal merging, which prevented their escape.

Every day, more Fennux were trapped and caged. Worse still, many of these cages had disappeared. None of the Fennux knew what this meant or what had
been done. It turns out these beautiful Fennux yielded high monetary value on the black market, for those seeking uniquities. The illicit capture of Fennux was a trade, a trade that these terrible
people engaged in willingly, lead only by greed. The captured Fennux watched as yet another cage was added to their number, a collared youngling. He whimpered in sadness as a man
slammed his fist on the top of the cage to silence the Fennux within.

A sizable group of humans appeared, and with interest at the sight of the newcomers; all the caged Fennux in camp watched as strange silver collars were pushed onto
the evil human's wrists. The new humans, with gentle hands, opened the cage doors and began to gingerly remove the Fennux' collars. With a cage in each hand, these
former captive Saharan Fennux were taken out of the camp and into the headquarters of Team Fennux, released into safe habitats for the sole purpose of rehabilitating them.
The idea that these creatures, formerly shackled and drained of all energy, ran the risk of disappearing off the face of the earth urged Team Fennux to relocate them and allow them to be bred in a new safe haven.

Polar Region
The water rose. Slowly, but indeed it rose, inching higher day by day up the frozen shelves of glacial ice, until the time that the Fennux could no longer deny it. The Polar
region had begun to melt and drift away. The Fennux were made to retreat further inland as the days grew longer, and hotter, so much so that the more crazed of
the breed took to gnawing at themselves in furious desperation. These Fennux were trying to relieve themselves of their thick coats - as if this would alleviate the discomfort -
they succeeded only in weakening themselves, falling ill as the scarce sources of food dwindled down to starvation rations. Once a winter wonderland, the region withered in the
unrelenting grasp of climate change.

Some, the clever ones - tried to adapt, tried to learn to shed their furry coats, but even the Fennux could not evolve quickly enough to disperse the heat. A species adapted
for the cold, these arctic Fennux found the decks to be stacked against them, and as starvation and illness ran rampant, the gentle creatures consigned themselves to their
undeserved fate; a changing world, accelerated by the actions of the human race, would mean the end of their time in this realm, and this surely would have been the case
had not Team Fennux intervened.

When the news got out of the hectic changes that were destroying the existence of this previously unknown breed, Team Fennux sprang into action. Habitats and
temporary housing were rebuilt, modified and retrofitted for their new-found arctic friends. The majority of the Polar Fennux were seen to be sickly, weakened and
half-starved, it was all the easier to wrangle them up and extract them to safety. Reports still leak in about Team Fennux rescuing these warm-hearted creatures from ice
floes that had broken away and drifted off into the rising seas.

Eastern Region
Coiled in a tight ball in the shade of the looming mountain, a thin veil of smoke puffing out from it's tip, the sounds of warm wind in leafy verdant trees and the rustle
of fellow Fennux rolling on the ground nearby; she couldn't help but feel drowsy and sleep, even at this time of day. But her slumber was rudely interrupted by a loud,
gurgling sound nearby. Raising her head sharply, large ears twisted upwards in high alarm; the small Fennux glanced at her family, then down at the dirt between her
tiny paws as the noise continued somewhere nearby. One by one, the Fennux woke, each looking around at one another in utter confusion before dropping their gazes
to the ground.

It only took a moment for their world to turn upside down. The so-called peaceful mountain they once called home burst into thousands of rocky shards.
Brilliant red-orange lava spewed out from it's tip, cutting into the sides of the mountain as it poured, racing towards the frightened Fennux as if this river of fire
was seeking them like a predator tracking prey. In that moment the Fennux panicked, knowing that their options for survival were few. Fearfully acknowledging this instinct, the Fennux fanned out, their
little legs kicking bursts of fallen leaves out behind them as they sprinted for safety. Fast, too fast for what was to come; the ground split at the base of the
volcano as the Fennux reached the treeline, stopping their escape short. The ground hissed as it vented toxic fumes into the air. Several Fennux in a burst of light
disappeared, eternally merging with the great beyond, immediately to avoid the inevitable death it meant for them.

A small group of Fennux left behind, caught in a mix of smoldering lava and toxic gasses, were unsure of what to do. Should they too eternal merge?
They didn't want to experience pain, they didn't want to leave this world behind either. What were they to do? Their answer came from the sea. Researchers, who had been observing
the Fennux from afar, had finally reached the shore with open arms, urging the Fennux survivors to hurry over to them. Sprinting to the humans, the Fennux were loaded
one by one into their vessel before the lava reached them. Though the Fennux took ill from the gas, the researchers were patient and kind, mending the sick Fennux back to
health, eventually handing them over to Team Fennux once they were well enough to travel. These Eastern Fennux, trusted the Team to aid them, and with that their numbers multiplied
quickly in the artificial habitat Team Fennux provided for them, which mimicked their warm, beach front homeland. So quick in fact that Team Fennux opened their doors for the public to start
adopting these Fennux as well.

Amazonian Region
Even before the sounds came, the tiny slender Fennux was stirred by the smell. Thick, noxious, smoke filtered through the lush, emerald leaves of the
rainforest, hanging low and dense as London fog. The sound followed soon, a tremor in the earth that built to a cacophony of mechanical roaring, as hundreds of
spinning metal teeth tore through trunks and branches. Treads the size of boulders shredded the rich soil as the beasts came, mechanical monstrosities that the
Fennux had never seen before. Powered by burning diesel and crewed by men in heavy breathing masks, the Fennux watched in horror as the great destroyers turned miles
upon miles of the forest to raw stumps and bare earth, hauling off mountain after mountain of splintered wood.

These Fennux dealt with a far more subtle problem than their breathern. As time passed, the disappearance of the trees that have long been their home posed little
problem; though the humans were greedy and their metal beasts were forever hungry, the forests were massive and spanning. Eventually the ravenous
creatures with steel jaws and rumbling hearts expanded their hunting ground, and in doing so, drove the Fennux further and further into seclusion. For a time, the
gentle Fennux thought of approaching the humans, of making some attempt to curtail their incursion, but the devastation was widespread and irreversible in only a
short amount of time, and other creatures lacked the intelligence and cunning of the wily Fennux, who had learned in short order to avoid the invading human. As a
result, the prey animals of the jungle, crushed under treads and robbed of their natural habitat, dwindled to near-extinction, with the Fennux able to do little more
than watch, wide-eyed, as their food and their homes alike were shredded to bare scraps. The end seemed inevitable for the Amazonian Fennux.

Team Fennux, however, had different plans in mind. After hearing word of the forests being destroyed - and the subsequent damage the Fennux themselves were
suffering because of this - teams were dispatched to rescue and relocate the gentle creatures to safer lands.

Crafting and Dueling
"Sir, come take a look at this." In the viewing window of a Team Fennux laboratory, a pair of Fennux played with one of the dozen interns, pawing at his hands before darting off to hide.
They never looked happier. Behind the window at the control panels, a dial was turned, and both the man and woman looked intently at the playing Fennux. "It works?", they said,
"The eustress inducing, fusion machine?" The woman at the dial smirked, saying nothing.

Back in the habitat, the playing Fennux tumbled, scattering dust in every direction, rearing up into one another and... the intern backed away, confused and startled at the flash
of light. Where two Fennux stood, one remained. It's fur, even the intelligence behind it's eyes was different from the two Fennux that had created it. Satisfied, the woman
leaned back, crossing her arms. "It's more conformed now, similar to what they do in the wild when they're in distress, or better yet eustress... really happy." ... "This machine..." She gestured to
the control panel, "...sends out those eustress beams directly to the Fennux. After a few moments two or more of them will fuse into one rarer, more adapted Fennux."

She turned, smiling at the young man. "Needs a little refinement. I'm thinking a portable version, something more compact, something..." She trailed off as an intern suddenly
rushed into the room, panicked. Switching the view from the newly crafted Fennux, he pointed to the window of the dome next door. Something had gone wrong. All three
members of the team rose to their feet, approaching the glass to watch.

Inside the habitat, two Fennux were circling one another. These two did not look happy. A slab of fresh prey lay between them. Clearly there was a dispute over who the meal
belonged to. Suddenly, as if an internal switch had been flipped; the two Fennux lunged at one another, biting at each other's fur. Their small bodies moved quick, so fast that it was hard
to tell who was winning the dispute. "Why are they fighting? I wouldn't imagine eternal beings resorting to this sort of behavior. I thought they lived forever..." said one of them. "They do.
Let's just see how they resolve this." explained the project leader.

Suddenly, bursts of bright mystical light soared through the air out of both the Fennux' mouths. This went on for a moment eventually causing a mini explosion in the lab chamber. The two
competitors were thrust backwards a bit - knocked down and slightly dazed. They both returned to their feet in a battle stance, continuing to resolve their issue at hand. After a few
minutes of dueling, the whole show ended as abruptly as it had begun. One Fennux, a slight notch in his ear, limped away from the contested food.

Holding his chin, one of the men behind the glass remarked "So they indeed are immortal, but when certain conflicts arise - they battle it out until one of them grows tired from exhaustion."
The female in the room paused for a bit, then stated "Yes, that makes perfect sense. It's not health at risk during these duels, mere energy." As the Fennux deemed the loser, curled up into a
ball and drifted off into slumber. All of the team members couldn't help but smile with relief, now knowing that these aggressively seeming Fennux were actually a whole lot more peaceful than they were appearing.
"Looks like we've got a lot more research ahead of us..." said one of the lab technicians, "...if only we could share these creatures with the world."